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Patagonian Funeral Procession
HE mode of burial among even showing themselves unless absothe Patagonians varies lutely obliged to do so. They must in detail according to blacken themselves with soot, and not eat the particular tribe, but the flesh of the guanaco, the mare, or the there is a general re- rhea. Should a woman break the rule of semblance in the cere- seclusion, and be detected in an intrigue, monies throughout the she would at once lose her life at the country. When a man dies, his body is hands of her dead husband's relations. wrapped in his best mantle, placed on his Among some of the tribes the tomb is favorite horse, and conveyed to the place periodically opened, and the skeleton of of burial, where a square pit has already the deceased, which has been prepared. been dug, some six feet in depth and two with the greatest care, is washed and or three feet in width. In this pit the clothed in new robes. This office belongs body of the deceased is placed in a sitting to an old matron, who is specially selected position, his bolas, spears, and other pro- for the task, which becomes in process of perty laid beside him, and the pit is then time a long and tedious one, as the covered with branches, on which a quan- warriors are placed side by side in the tity of earth is thrown. The horse is next sacrificed. It is held at the grave by one man, while another kills it by a blow on the head from the bolas, and the skin Among some of the tribes the skeletons is then removed, stuffed, and supported are prepared by laying the bodies on platat the grave on four posts. At the grave forms woven from canes and twigs, and of a cacique four horses are sacrificed. during the time that is occupied in clean- The clothing which is not buried with ing and bleaching the skeleton the plat the deceased is burned, and a feast on the form is guarded by the friends of the body of the horse closes the proceedings. dead man, draped in long mantles, and grave, each year gradually adding to the number of those who have to be washed and clothed annually.
The widows are obliged to remain in a bearing spears or staves with which they state of the strictest privacy for an entire strike the ground, while they sing mournyear, keeping themselves within their ful strains in order to drive away the huts, never mixing in society, and not Valichus, or spirits, who may possibly be well disposed toward the dead man, but This, however, is certainly not the case. are more likely to be unfriendly.
They believe in an omniscient Being; and Should the deceased have been a wealthy such a belief as this, limited and imperman, many visits of condolence are paid fect though it may be, is yet a step toto the relatives, the mourners weeping ward true religion. loudly, and pricking their arms and legs To this unknown Being they return with thorns in order to prove their affec- thanks when they have obtained a suption by the effusion of their blood. For ply of food after long famine, so that we these tokens of respect they are rewarded find them acknowledging that the great with beads, brass ornaments, and other Being, who knows all their deeds, watches presents; and it need scarcely be said over them, and is the Giver of all good that the sorrow felt for the deceased, and things. When, for example, they have the sympathy excited for his friends procured a seal, after having been half depend very much on the amount of starved for months, they assemble around property at the disposal of the relatives. a fire, and the oldest man present cuts for It has been thought that the Patagoni- each person a piece of the seal, uttering ans are totally destitute of true religion. over each portion a sort of prayer, and looking upward in devotion to the un- self-denial, and mad with hunger, not one seen God, who had sent them meat in of them will touch the food until this their need. Undisciplined as are the invocation has been repeated, and the Patagonians, totally unaccustomed to head of the household has offered thanks.
